Weight-loss diet: where to start
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Where do you start? Which path should you take?
As with any journey of personal improvement, and indeed in any situation where there is a goal to reach, however important it may be, it is essential to chart a course and draw up a map with reasonably clear reference points.
We will never tire of repeating it: having a clear view of the goals we set ourselves, which must necessarily be achievable, and therefore workable, but also challenging and easy to monitor, is the key to making the process ever more real, easy to pursue, yet also adjustable and easy to retrace should the need arise.
Knowing exactly where you are starting from, which values you intend to monitor over the weeks, which numbers can be achieved and over what timeframes they can be reached in a healthy way: these are all cornerstones to focus on, ideally in writing, at the start of the journey.
Many of us, for example, are almost completely unaware of the nature of the meals we eat over 24 hours or over a week, underestimate the calories we take in and often forget snacks or small indulgences. A good starting point would be to define clearly the amount of food that, as of today, that is at the moment you decide to set a new course, allows you to stay at your current weight and keep your waist circumference unchanged, or better still your body fat and body water percentages.
Once you have understood this, and it is easy to work out simply through self-monitoring for a period of at least 10 days or 2 weeks of the food eaten and of changes in the indicators listed above, you can go on to draw up the strategy to adopt.
Once again we want to clear away any false myths about miracle foods or wonder techniques: reaching a healthy weight and anatomical/physiological parameters that are appropriate and satisfying for the person happens only and exclusively through an energy deficit, that is, by shifting the balance between energy taken in and energy expended over 24 hours or several days in favour of the latter and at the expense of the former. Any other assumption that proposes different strategies is either mistaken or is in fact hiding a calorie deficit in the guise of a revolutionary eating plan: all weight-loss diets work because they allow the individual to eat fewer calories than they burn.
So what really makes it so hard for millions of people around the world to reach and maintain their physical standards and health goals?!? The real challenge lies in COMPLIANCE, that is, in devising an eating strategy that also takes our lifestyle into account more broadly, tailored as closely as possible to the individual, easy to follow at any stage of life and consistent over time without sudden changes that make a return to the starting point, or even to worse conditions, possible.
This explains why we often need competent professionals who can guide us step by step through the process, a path that is often long and needs continual adjustments and checks, not just a cold initial calculation based on the number of calories to cut each day. Every person responds in their own way and may need a different distribution of meals depending on tastes, timetables, work demands, sporting needs or general physiological needs.
As a rule, an excessive calorie cut is never desirable if you want lasting, stable changes over time; unless you are dealing with people with very strong self-motivation and self-control, such a strategy would lead to failure after a few weeks, because the body would try its best to defend itself against the nutrient shortage we have imposed on it. Ours is an extraordinary machine that is far more inclined to store energy than to use it: hence the constant and potentially harmful psychological urges to eat in situations of deprivation, but also the ability to slow down metabolic functions if the calorie cut is excessive and is identified as harmful by our own involuntary alarm systems.
The best balance is created by removing a small portion of the calories taken in compared with our maintenance value, verified as described above, combined with an increase in the calories burned through physical activity or extra daily movement. Thinking in terms of the week rather than 24 hours may help some people, especially when managing major food occasions such as weekend dinners or lunches, parties and social gatherings.
Food choices can also be a great help: favouring foods with a low energy density and a high satiety index certainly helps, as does keeping a small percentage of “favourite” foods rather than completely cutting out certain food groups for fear of taking in too many calories. The most real risk would be losing control precisely with those excluded foods, undoing everything and ending up back at square one.
Improving the ratios of the macronutrients consumed is another important point in the complex picture of the best eating strategies to put into practice. Note, for example, that the protein percentages in diets are all too often poorly considered, whereas increasing their share can improve some important factors in a diet plan, such as satiety and the thermogenic effect of meals; protein molecules, taken in the right amounts, place a greater digestive load on our system, especially compared with carbohydrates, and also release more heat energy, hence the thermogenic effect and the increase in overall energy expenditure, precisely because of how complex they are to digest.
Powdered products such as MIRABOL PROTEIN 94% or PROTEIN 97% are easy to include in an individual eating plan and, as we have said before, can be useful, high-quality protein alternatives that anyone can use easily, with a versatility that benefits every type of person.
These are just some of the aspects to focus on when choosing the best way to reach your goal. Our upcoming articles will look more closely at these and many other aspects. Follow us!
As with any journey of personal improvement, and indeed in any situation where there is a goal to reach, however important it may be, it is essential to chart a course and draw up a map with reasonably clear reference points.
We will never tire of repeating it: having a clear view of the goals we set ourselves, which must necessarily be achievable, and therefore workable, but also challenging and easy to monitor, is the key to making the process ever more real, easy to pursue, yet also adjustable and easy to retrace should the need arise.
Knowing exactly where you are starting from, which values you intend to monitor over the weeks, which numbers can be achieved and over what timeframes they can be reached in a healthy way: these are all cornerstones to focus on, ideally in writing, at the start of the journey.
Many of us, for example, are almost completely unaware of the nature of the meals we eat over 24 hours or over a week, underestimate the calories we take in and often forget snacks or small indulgences. A good starting point would be to define clearly the amount of food that, as of today, that is at the moment you decide to set a new course, allows you to stay at your current weight and keep your waist circumference unchanged, or better still your body fat and body water percentages.
Once you have understood this, and it is easy to work out simply through self-monitoring for a period of at least 10 days or 2 weeks of the food eaten and of changes in the indicators listed above, you can go on to draw up the strategy to adopt.
Once again we want to clear away any false myths about miracle foods or wonder techniques: reaching a healthy weight and anatomical/physiological parameters that are appropriate and satisfying for the person happens only and exclusively through an energy deficit, that is, by shifting the balance between energy taken in and energy expended over 24 hours or several days in favour of the latter and at the expense of the former. Any other assumption that proposes different strategies is either mistaken or is in fact hiding a calorie deficit in the guise of a revolutionary eating plan: all weight-loss diets work because they allow the individual to eat fewer calories than they burn.
So what really makes it so hard for millions of people around the world to reach and maintain their physical standards and health goals?!? The real challenge lies in COMPLIANCE, that is, in devising an eating strategy that also takes our lifestyle into account more broadly, tailored as closely as possible to the individual, easy to follow at any stage of life and consistent over time without sudden changes that make a return to the starting point, or even to worse conditions, possible.
This explains why we often need competent professionals who can guide us step by step through the process, a path that is often long and needs continual adjustments and checks, not just a cold initial calculation based on the number of calories to cut each day. Every person responds in their own way and may need a different distribution of meals depending on tastes, timetables, work demands, sporting needs or general physiological needs.
As a rule, an excessive calorie cut is never desirable if you want lasting, stable changes over time; unless you are dealing with people with very strong self-motivation and self-control, such a strategy would lead to failure after a few weeks, because the body would try its best to defend itself against the nutrient shortage we have imposed on it. Ours is an extraordinary machine that is far more inclined to store energy than to use it: hence the constant and potentially harmful psychological urges to eat in situations of deprivation, but also the ability to slow down metabolic functions if the calorie cut is excessive and is identified as harmful by our own involuntary alarm systems.
The best balance is created by removing a small portion of the calories taken in compared with our maintenance value, verified as described above, combined with an increase in the calories burned through physical activity or extra daily movement. Thinking in terms of the week rather than 24 hours may help some people, especially when managing major food occasions such as weekend dinners or lunches, parties and social gatherings.
Food choices can also be a great help: favouring foods with a low energy density and a high satiety index certainly helps, as does keeping a small percentage of “favourite” foods rather than completely cutting out certain food groups for fear of taking in too many calories. The most real risk would be losing control precisely with those excluded foods, undoing everything and ending up back at square one.
Improving the ratios of the macronutrients consumed is another important point in the complex picture of the best eating strategies to put into practice. Note, for example, that the protein percentages in diets are all too often poorly considered, whereas increasing their share can improve some important factors in a diet plan, such as satiety and the thermogenic effect of meals; protein molecules, taken in the right amounts, place a greater digestive load on our system, especially compared with carbohydrates, and also release more heat energy, hence the thermogenic effect and the increase in overall energy expenditure, precisely because of how complex they are to digest.
Powdered products such as MIRABOL PROTEIN 94% or PROTEIN 97% are easy to include in an individual eating plan and, as we have said before, can be useful, high-quality protein alternatives that anyone can use easily, with a versatility that benefits every type of person.
These are just some of the aspects to focus on when choosing the best way to reach your goal. Our upcoming articles will look more closely at these and many other aspects. Follow us!
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